# Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act The **Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act** of 1998, now codified in relevant part at **50 U.S.C. § 3033(k)(5)**, is the only lawful route by which an employee of an intelligence community element may bring a classified "urgent concern" to Congress. The route is short and the clocks are real. The employee submits the complaint in writing to the [[ODNI]] Inspector General, who has **14 calendar days** to determine whether it "appears credible." If credible, the IG transmits it to the **Director of National Intelligence**, who has **7 calendar days** to forward it to the two congressional intelligence committees with any comments he considers appropriate. The structural feature that distinguishes this channel from every other is that it routes the complaint *through* the officials it may be about. If the IG does not find the complaint credible, the employee may contact the committees directly — but must first give the Director a statement of the complaint through the IG plus notice of intent, and must then follow the Director's security guidance on how to make contact. Retaliation, including adverse security-clearance action, is separately barred by PPD-19 as codified at 50 U.S.C. § 3234. There is no judicial review of the merits of a clearance decision. This is a stub — expand with the 1998 legislative history, the 2010 and 2014 amendments, and the 2019 dispute over what the DNI's forwarding duty requires. ## See also - [[Federal Whistleblower Protection Crosswalk]] - [[How a Security Clearance Is Granted and Revoked]] - [[Inspector General Oversight Tree]] - [[ODNI]]